Meja Mwangi
| Meja Mwangi | |
|---|---|
| Born |
David Dominic Mwangi December 27, 1948 Nanyuki, central Kenya |
| Nationality | Kenya |
| Education | Nanyuki Secondary School, Kenyatta College, University of Leeds |
| Occupation | novelist, a film industry professional (screenwriting, assistant directing, casting, location management) |
| Agent | Annemarie Friedli |
| Known for | One of Kenya's leading novelists; author for children's books with African people and culture |
| Notable work | Kill Me Quick (1973), Going Down River Road (1976),the Cockroach Dance (1979) |
| Awards |
Fellow in Writing at the University of Iowa (1975-6). For awards for literal works, see  Meja Mwangi#Prizes and awards
|
Meja Mwangi (born 27 December 1948) is one of Kenya's leading novelists. Mwangi has worked in the film industry, including screenwriting, assistant directing, casting and location management.
He was born David Dominic Mwangi in Nanyuki, Kenya, and was educated at Nanyuki Secondary School, and studied at the University of Leeds for a while. He then worked on odd-jobs for French Broadcasting Corporation, a British Council in Nairobi for Visual Aids Officer, before he turned to full-time writing. He was Fellow in Writing at the University of Iowa (1975-6).
Between 1975 and 1976, Meja Mwangi stayed in the United States of America as a Fellow in Writing at Iowa University writers’ workshop. Mwangi, the path to a popular writer was never obtained casually. After prolonged period in the Kenyan and African publishing scene over the years, he moved to the US after the recognition in several awards and winning reputation.
American publishers who was interested him as a juvenile literature novelist started to issue his works, and those publishers also put on print Mama Dudu, the Insect Woman (2007), as well as two screen plays, Power (2009), and Blood Brothers (2009) a work expanded from Mama Dudu, the Insect Woman. His best known early work is a trilogy of Kill Me Quick (1973), Going Down River Road (1976), and The Cockroach Dance (1979), illustrating the urban landscape in Kenya with struggle against poverty and epidemic of AIDS.
Before recognized internationally as a novelist, Meja Mwangi worked as a soundman at French television ORTF, when he started writing his first novel. His literal works were issued and read by limited readers in Kenya and African nations until translation in French, German, and English began in the 1980s when he had put several novels in print already.
"Interviews on Voice of America" was recorded between 1975-1979, and broadcast preservation master was archived for Library of Congress Magnetic Recording Laboratory in 1977. It was in 1979 when the unedited version of audio recording was copied from tapes lent by Lee Nichols, the interviewer of the program, which was archived at the Library of Congress. The transcript of broadcast version was produced around 1977. Bernth Lindfor interviewed twenty-seven writers from six African countries including Meja Mwangi. Lindfor was a prominent scholar of Africana, and he archived in his library the four magazines that published those interviews. Lindfor reprinted them, or Palaver,Dem-Say, Mazungumzo, and Kulankula.
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